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INELSON JARVIS VVATERBURY: 



J Jiograiilitcal fiUitl 



BY 



JOHN L. O'SULLIVAN, 



L(7/e U. S. Minister lo Porttural. 



{Reprinted from''' l^w^ Jarvis Family," Zvo. Hartford. 1879). 



J. ^V^. B O XT T O N. 

1S80. 









FRANCIS & LOUTREL, 

IJrinltrs, 

No. 45 Maiden Lank, X. Y. 



I 'I 



This slight sketch, of one of the notable public men of 
New York, was .written for a volume specially devoted to 
the family of which Judge Waterbury is a distinguished 
member. Though a labor of love, as the portraiture of a 
life-long friend, the faithful justice of its delineation has 
been so fully recognized by impartial authorities of the 
highest eminence, that I have no fear of its being charged 
with exaggeration by the general public opinion of the 
community under whose eyes has passed a life so useful 
and so honorable. It is reprinted in the present form, with 
the permission of the compilers of the volume referred to, in 
the belief that other friends, outside of Judge Waterbury's 
family, will be gratified to peruse and possess it, — not 
excluding even any adversaries he may have made in the 
course of his positive and active career. 

J. L. O'S. 

New York, September 25th, 1880. 



Nelson Jarvis Waterbury. 



The writer of the present sketch has accepted with cordial 
pleasure the invitation to prepare it, addressed to him by the 
compiler of this volume. No member of the widely extended 
and honorable family to which, on the mother's side, Mr. 
Waterbury belongs, can fill a fairer page in the record of its 
annals. I have known him intimately from his early youth 
upward, alike in his private, political, and professional life, 
and, though not always concurring with him in his political 
action, know him to be one of the most pure and conscien- 
tious, of the most generous and high-minded, of the most 
patriotic and devoted, as well as one of the ablest, of the 
limited number of men who constitute now the front rank 
of the legal profession of New York. If friendship should 
seem to warm any of the colors of this slight portrait sketch, 
its lines are traced with the pen of truth and justice alone. 
Distrustful of my competence to judge him properly in the 
special aspect in which he is to be viewed as a lawyer, from 
having been absent from the country during the greater part 
of that period which has witnessed his rise to his present 
distinction at the Bar, I have addressed myself to several of 
its most eminent members who have had the best opportu- 
nity of observing him, both from the bench and on the level 
ground of association in practice, whether on the same or on 
opposite sides of the intellectual contests of that noble pro- 
fession, for their experience and judgment of Mr. Waterbury ; 
and it is their portraiture of him which in these lines I only 
reflect and report. And I confess to have been strongly im- 
pressed, most agreeably, by the warmth and force of language 
with which, with substantial unanimity, so many men by 
whom to be praised is praise indeed, expressed themselves 
in regard to Mr. Waterbury as a lawyer. 

" Mr. Waterbury is one of the ablest men at this Bar," was 
the language of one, himself second to none ; "and there is 
probably not one in ten who wins so large a proportion of 



6 

the cases he undertakes. If he had devoted himself solely 
to the profession and left politics alone, which only cost him 
money instead of gaining it, and if he had been somewhat 
less generous, he would b}^ this time have made a large 
fortune." 

"Mr. Waterbury is a great man," said another; "though 
it is not everybody who knows it." "And among those who 
do not know it," I replied, " is himself." He continued, 
" Waterbury has remarkable promptness, activity, imagina- 
tion, resource, and boldness. He has unflinching nerve, and 
is fearless as a lion. For the planning and direction of a 
campaign he has no superior. And while he takes the 
broadest views, he neglects no detail. He has often been 
the inspiring soul of movements of which others have had 
the chief credit." 

" The important legal office of District Attorney of New 
York," said another, "has never been filled more ably, up- 
rightly, honorably, and satisfactorily than it was by Mr. 
Waterbury. Nor is there any position to which he is not 
equal." 

There was a general concurrence in recognizing that among 
the elements of his success there shone conspicuously his 
perfect fairness, his evident conscientiousness. Judges and 
juries alike felt this. Before he pleaded his case, it had 
undergone trial in the forum of his own conscience. He 
probably would not succeed well in a case of whose honest 
merits he should himself have misgivings, though I doubt 
whether Mr. Waterbury could ever be found the advocate of 
any such cause. 

Thoroughly satisfied of its justice, of its rightfulness, he 
becomes then filled with a devoted zeal for its success. His 
special faculty and power of organization enable him to 
coordinate all the elements and means of success in the most 
logical sequence and method. In such preparation he spares 
no labor. He has an intense loi'c oi justice. As a public 
prosecutor, recognizing its enforcement to be indispensable 
to the peace and order of such a community as that of New 
York, he was inflexible and indefatigable in the discharge of 
what he felt to be a high moral duty, from which not all his 
real tenderness of heart would make him swerve, while at 
the same time he never strained justice into, cruelty; nor the 



power of the law into oppression. Every syllable was true 
in the following solemn passage from a speech of his on a 
trial in which he had to prosecute the author of two atrocious 
murders mentioned further on, which, if they had passed 
unpunished, would have placed in constant jeopardy the life 
of every, peaceful citizen walking the brown-stone-fronted 
avenues of New York : 

" If I know my own self, I would do no wrong to any man. 
I never knew any motive of benefit, nor any impulse of feel- 
ing, which could induce me deliberately to injure a single 
being in all the world ; and I certainly could not willfully 
oppress a person accused of crime, in regard to whom I am 
bound by a solemn oath, the obligations of which require 
me, not only to conduct the prosecutions of the State, but 
also to make sure that, by my action, no injustice is done to 
any man. Standing in the position in which I do, if by any 
act of mine, any intentional act of mine, a man were con- 
victed who was really innocent of an offense which involved 
his life, I would be, gentlemen^ in the sight of God and man 
as black and as depraved in heart as he who took the lives 
of those two men in reference to whose death we are now 
examining. I trust that I have not, in all this prosecution, 
exceeded what justice would permit, and I believe I have 
done nothing more than duty absolutely required." 

On one occasion, after James T. Brady, the greatest ad- 
vocate in criminal cases of the New York Bar, had made an 
address which seemed to carry away all the feelings of the 
jury on a wave of sympathy for the family of his client, the 
accused defendant, and after the District Attorney had fol- 
lowed in reply, Brady said that Mr. Waterbury's speech was 
the best he had ever heard in court, and that though he had 
at first thought he had captured the hearts of the jury, 
Waterbury had taken them all away from him by his counter 
presentation of the wrongs and sufferings of other innocent 
families, caused by such acts as his client was being tried 
for. I mention this circum§^tance to illustrate what was the 
truth, that the zeal for justice, which was the mainspring of 
Mr.Waterbury's action, was not a mere stern and cold logical 
appreciation of an abstraction, but had its source in a deep 
and genuine feeling of sympathy for the human sufferings of 
those who are the innocent victims of crime and wrong-doing. 



While a very modest, not to say diffident man, Mr. Water- 
bury had a properly high sense of the dignity, as well as of 
moral duties of the office of District Attorney, to which he 
had been elected by the confidence of the people, ratifying 
the judgment of the more intimate friends who had proposed 
him for it. On one occasion he had sent a subpa-na to Com- 
modore Vanderbilt, that great power in the State, who re- 
cently died, leaving an estate of over a hundred millions of dol- 
lars, who was then the owner of the Pacific Mail Steamship 
line, requiring the attendance of a witness to prove an indis- 
pensable point in a case he was prosecuting, with a memoran- 
dum of the point to be proved, for which the testimony of 
one of his employees would suffice. The great money po- 
tentate took no notice of it, nor sent any witness. When 
the cage was called Mr. Waterbury quietly proceeded with 
the trial, but he took out an attachment, and sent down an 
officer to arrest the person who had dared to disobey a 
subpcena. In half an hour the tall Commodore sailed majes- 
tically into the court-room, attended by a retinue of about a 
dozen lawyers and friends. The effect was highly sensa- 
tional. The required testimony was furnished, and the ac- 
cused person was convicted. The Commodore was not a 
little astonished to find himself arrested for the first and only 
time in his life. But he cherished afterward no ill-will for 
it, while he understood better than before the duty of every 
citizen to obey the lawful process of the courts. 

On another occasion, a bank functionary had to be prose- 
cuted in a case deemed very important, and a committee of 
bank presidents had, by way of securing the very highest 
legal talent for the prosecution, requested Mr. Waterbury, 
who was a young man, to allow the prosecution to be con- 
ducted by Charles O'Conor, and other counsel employed by 
the bank. Mr. Waterbury said that he made no pretensions 
to rank professionally with Mr. O'Conor, and should be glad 
and grateful for his powerful aid in the management of the 
case, the argumentation on the admission of evidence, etc., 
but that he could not abdicate his duties and responsibilities; 
while he thought also that the public officer, acting and 
speaking from the point of view of the public interests, might 
have a certain weight with the jury different from that of 
any private counsel, even though so able and eminent as 



Mr. O'Conor. He willingly accepted the cooperation pro- 
posed, but said the final submission to the jury by the 
people would be by himself. It happened that at the time 
of the trial Mr. Waterbury was quite ill, and did not attend 
any day until an hour or two after the opening of the court. 
He sat leaning against the wood-work of the raised platform " 
where presided the court, a mere listener to the evidence 
until the testimony was closed on both sides. The court- 
room was crowded to its utmost capacity, with spectators 
attracted by the forensic duel between two such advocates 
as Charles O'Conor and James T. Brady. When the latter 
had finished his address for the prisoner, Mr. Waterbury, 
feeling strongly the pressure of duty, notwithstanding his 
feeble physical condition at such a trying moment, but hav- 
ing his own clear views of the aspects in which the case 
should be presented on behalf of the people, walked round 
to his accustomed seat, took off the wrappings which his 
illness had caused him to wear, and, without a note of any 
kind to refresh his memory, commenced his address to the 
jury, which lasted a couple of hours. He then, with grace- 
ful recognition of his great eminence, offered to yield to Mr. 
O'Conor, if he had omitted or inadequately presented any 
points which ought to be further argued. Mr. O'Conor 
replied that there was nothing more to be said, nor could 
the argument have been better presented. He suggested 
only a single minor point which had been omitted, and which 
he begged Mr. Waterbury to state, as he had set forth all 
the rest. This was done, and the case was won, and with it 
Mr. Waterbury won also the highest respect and esteem of 
the whole crowded court-room, bench, bar, and spectators. 

In thus speaking of the legal ability and high moral eleva- 
tion of character exhibited by Mr. Waterbury in his discharge 
of the important office of the public prosecutor of the City 
of New York, I have been led to anticipate dates, since it 
was not until 1858 that he was elected to that position, as 
will appear below in the proper chronological order. 

Mr. Waterbury's capacity and character were early appre- 
ciated by observant men. His law studies had been pursued 
in the office of Messrs. Wells & Van Wagenen, a firm now 
passed away without succession, but then held in high esteem 
by the substantial men of the city. He was admitted to the 



10 

Bar as attorney, by the Supreme Court, then consisting of 
three judges, Samuel Nelson being Chief Justice. While in 
Albany, where the court sat in 1845, to obtain his license as 
counsellor, his name was erroneously, and without his 
knowledge, included for Justice of the Marine Court, in a 
published list of candidates for the various offices, a large 
number, then to be filled by the Governor, Silas Wright. 
On his return home, just admitted as counsellor, he was 
constantly asked if he was going to be appointed. His reply 
that he was not a candidate did not stop the course of 
events, for several gentlemen voluntarily wrote to the Gov- 
ernor, recommending the appointment, and Governor Wright, 
having had personal opportunity of observing the capacity 
and usefulness of this young lawyer, gave to the suggestion 
his cordial approval. 

Mr. Waterbury was thus suddenly elevated, immediately 
after his admission as counsellor, to the Bench of a court 
which had been graced by many distinguished lawyers 
(among the number, John Wells and Samuel Jones), while 
still so youthful as to appear a mere boy. The title of Judge 
seemed oddly fitted to that long and slender youth, with 
small, beardless, and colorless face, blue eyes, very light hair, 
and no breadth of chest and shoulders to speak of, always 
suggestive of the idea of feeble health ; yet he made one of 
the best, most respected, and useful judges that had ever 
presided in that popular court, which was one of real im- 
portance, though of minor jurisdiction. 

The truth is, that the judicial character of his mind, his 
analytical logical power, his quickness of apprehension, and 
conscientious good judgment, singularly qualified him for 
the position. But he did not hold it more than four years. 

In 1848, one of the most remarkable political contests 
ever known in the State of New York was fought to the 
bitter end. Silas Wright (who had refused to accept the 
Presidential nomination tendered to him at Baltimore in 
1844, but who had consented to accept that of Governor in 
order to strengthen the Democratic party in the Polk and 
Clay campaign of that year) had been defeated for re-election 
in 1846, through the hostility of the wing of the party called 
the " Hunkers," by a small majority, though the Democratic 
candidate for Lieutenant-Governor was elected. The sudden 



11 

death of Silas Wright a few months afterward aroused the 
most intense hostility on the part of his friends against those 
wdiom they regarded as "the murderers of Silas Wright." 
At the Baltimore Convention of 1844, Mr. Van Buren's re- 
nomination had been defeated by the opposition of the same 
faction, who aimed at the nomination of General Cass, 
though after they saw the vehemence of resentment they 
had awakened, fearing the loss of the Presidential election, 
they offered the nomination to Mr. Wright, which he refused, 
and the compromise result was the nomination of the com- 
paratively second-rate man, Polk of Tennessee. 

Nevertheless, Mr. Wright consented to accept the Gov- 
ernorship of New York, as the means of saving the State 
and the election to the Democratic party, with Polk for its 
Presidential candidate. The old enemies of Van Buren still 
strove for the nomination of Cass in 1848, and it was for the 
purpose of killing off Gov. Wright for 1848, that they de- 
feated his re-election for Governor in 1846, which was soon 
followed by his death, as above mentioned. Silas Wright 
was regarded by the young men as the Cato of the Democ- 
racy, or, like Brutus, as "the noblest Roman of them all." 
They would tolerate no association with those at whose 
door they laid " the deep damnation of his taking off." Cass 
was again and still the candidate of these latter, and the un- 
forgiving friends of Silas Wright, in his grave, preferred any 
and all consequences rather than the triumph of Cass and 
the Hunkers. The fascinating influence and brilliant elo- 
quence of John Van Buren fed the flame of this superheated 
party feeling. To defeat at all hazards them and Cass, for 
whom personally they entertained a profound contempt, was 
their aim and passionate resolve. The result was that strange 
and unnatural coalition which was represented by the nomi- 
nation of Van Buren and Adams on the " Buffalo platform." 
Subsequent history has proven (in my opinion) that this was 
a grievous mistake, though it had its origin in natural and 
generous emotions. The result was that Cass was utterly 
defeated, Taylor being, in the State of New York, first, Van 
Buren second, and Cass third. The Whigs swept the State 
and the country. Mr. Waterbury was second to none in his 
participation in the general feeling and action of the young 
Democrats of New York, nicknamed the " Barnburners." 



u 

The election of Taylor for a single term was, to them, a 
minor evil in comparison with what they would have re- 
garded as the abomination of Cass under those circum- 
stances. Silas Wright was at least avenged. 

To Mr. Waterbury, one immediate consequence was the 
loss of his position on the bench. The Whigs, in full pos- 
session of the State, and eager to possess all the ofifices, va- 
cated his seat by reducing the term of the incumbent judges, 
and Mr. Waterbury contentedly returned to the private 
practice of his profession. 

The New York "Barnburner" revolt in the Democratic 
party, in 1848, was a purely local and temporary episode. 
The two divisions of the party in New York soon came 
together again by natural gravitation, and the result was 
seen in 1852, in the overwhelming majority by which Pierce, 
a mere brigadier-general in the Mexican war, was elected 
over General Scott, its brilliant and popular commander-in- 
chief. Mr. Waterbury approved the Clay compromise 
measures of 1850, and has never since separated from the 
National party. 

After his retirement, in 1849, from his four years of service 
on the bench of the Marine Court, Judge Waterbury pur- 
sued the modest career of a young lawyer with a practice 
yet to make, and with qualifications for success, and the 
achievement of distinction, more solid than showy. And if 
he was thus legitimately wedded to Themis, she was far 
from possessing his whole heart. Another passion divided 
it and led him often into truancy from his law ofifice — that of 
politics. A full-blooded American, an earnest patriot, an 
ingrained Democrat full of sincere faith in the people, 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of what may be termed 
the Jacksonian era, imbibed by him from association with 
that pure and noble set of men of whom, in New York, Van 
Buren, Wright, Young, Flagg, Michael Hoffman, and others 
were the chiefs (his intimate friend, Tilden, being another 
high pupil of the same splendid school), a born organizer, 
and of that temper of character which made disinterested 
zeal and indefatigable work for the promotion of what was to 
him right and duty a very law of his nature, a necessity of 
his very conscience, that pale and slender young man who, 
though nearly six feet, weighed less than 130 pounds (he can 



13 

now boast his i8o), soon came to occupy quite an unique 
position among the leading men of his party. His poHtics 
were a sort of religion to him, and a religion of work as well 
as of words. He had the confidence of their inmost circle, 
and was always fond of excellent counsel. He was of most 
useful private benefit to the Democratic press. Possessing 
a remarkable memoiy, attentive to details as well as to gene- 
ralities, and fond of statistics, he was familiar with the figures 
of the past votes, not merely of States and cities, but of 
counties and wards, and not alone of his own State, but of 
the principal States of the Union ; so that in election times, 
when returns would come in much more slowly and scatter- 
ingly than in these modern days of electricity, he was in- 
valuable in helping to the earliest judgment of the results. 
The tables of comparative returns which, at such periods, 
were the most important and interesting reading in the 
columns of the leading Democratic papers, were always sure 
to have proceeded from his accurate and indefatigable pencil, 
to which they were a labor of love. And in the city of his 
own residence. New York, he always took an active and most 
serviceable part, organization being at once X^x"-, forte and his 
delight. At the same time he was seldom one of the 
speakers at public meetings ; not only did he not possess 
the requisite power of lungs and voice, but his style, tliougfi 
easy and excellent in the prosecution of a logical line of ar- 
gument to carry conviction to the reason of a judge, and the 
mingled reason and heart of a jury, was not of the kind most 
effective with popular assemblages. Moreover, at such 
times he was always too busy otherwise — and after the vic- 
tory often too much exhausted — for that kind of political 
work. But many a time, when the brilliant popular orator 
would seem to carry off so large a share of the credit for the 
victory achieved, Mr. Waterbury had really contributed ten 
times more of effective though silent influence to the result. 
A sworn enemy to corruption and every form of dishonesty 
in politics or in morals, and ever unrelenting to the old 
enemies of Silas Wright (to this day tears have been seen to 
come to his eyes at that name), while he possessed the un- 
limited confidence and esteem of all the leading men of his 
own wing of the Democratic party, he became, of course, the 
object of a special animosity and dread to those of the other. 



14 

in i$53, the members of the Common Council of the city 
had already become popularly known as " the forty thieves ;" 
and the Legislature, upon the application of a committee 
consisting of Peter Cooper, Henry Grinnell, James Boorman, 
and other leading citizens of that high category, which had 
been organized for the sole purpose of securing municipal 
reform, passed a series of amendments to the city charter, 
to be submitted to a popular vote before taking effect. The 
election for this object was a special one, and none of the 
political organizations took any part in it. 

The danger was, however, imminent that it would be con- 
trolled by the members of the Common Council, the most 
influential politicians of their respective wards, and all inter- 
ested in defeating the proposed amendments. Only two 
weeks remained before the election, and the friends of reform 
found themselves in danger of defeat. Judge Waterbury's 
ability as an organizer was well known, but he was not a 
member of the committee. Duncan C. Pell, afterward Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Rhode Island, and Geo. B. Butler, a 
confidential business associate of the late A. T. Stewart, were 
sent to request him to prepare a plan for organizing the 
brief campaign, and to direct it. He promptly prepared a 
paper setting forth a perfect plan to arouse the dull and 
languid public attention, so as to secure success at the elec- 
tion. The committee unanimously and gratefully approved 
his plan of organization and action, and urged him to assume 
the task of its execution. He finally consented, on condi- 
tion that he should have the sole management, and should 
not have to consult with any committee or other authority 
whatever; to which the committee had the good sense to 
agree. When the caucus of the Common Council learned 
that the campaign was to be conducted by him, they realized 
that any attempt to defeat the amendments would be use- 
less, and all opposition was abandoned. The reform move- 
ment was, however, organized with the most perfect and 
complete system, every detail being arranged with the great- 
est care, and with such success that the amendments were 
adopted by a majority of 30,000 in a vote of about 36,000; 
quite a full vote for a quarter of a century ago. 

About two years before this, in 1851, the part of the city 
in which Judge Waterbury resided was set off as a new ward. 



15 

and the Democrats selected him to represent it in the Board 
of Education of the city; a position always esteemed one of 
high honor. He declined the nomination, but was neverthe- 
less elected. He could not be insensible to such an expres- 
sion of confidence, and such an appeal to his philanthropy ; 
and for nearly eleven consecutive years served as a school 
officer, taking at once a leading part in educational matters. 
He brought to these new duties the same spirit of zeal and 
thoroughgoingness which characterized his action in all mat- 
ters in which he saw duty to be performed and public good 
to be accomplished. The service was wholly gratuitous, and 
involved much labor, sacrifice of time, and even some ex- 
pense. At that period, and for years before, vehement con- 
troversy existed between the Roman Catholics, under the 
lead of their priesthood, and the powerful Public School So- 
ciety, over the question of the religious influence exerted 
upon the minds of the children by the spirit and tone of 
school education. On the one side a Protestantizing influ- 
ence was produced, or claimed to be produced, through the 
reading of the Bible in the schools and the use of books 
containing or suggesting anti-Catholic ideas. The Catholics 
(chiefly Irish and Democratic in their party associations) not 
only made such complaints, but claimed that an affirmative 
religious influence ought to be exerted in the course of early 
education ; and they wanted the existing public school sys- 
tem broken up, and specially Catholic schools established to 
work side by side with the Protestant ones, according to the 
preferences of the parents. There was a great deal to be 
reasonably urged on both sides of such a controversy. Per- 
sonally Mr. Waterbury was a Protestant (being Episcopalian, 
and strong for the "Apostolic succession "), and shared the 
general unwillingness of the community to seeing a sectarian 
disruption of the great common school system of New York. 
But he was at the same time a reasonable, just, and, above 
all, a practical man. In the first year of his service he was 
appointed by the President of the Board, the Hon. E. C. 
Benedict, upon a committee to confer with the Public School 
Society, for the transfer of its schools (about qeual in num- 
ber with those under the control of the Board of Education) 
to the control of the latter body ; and to his tact and ability 
the accomplishment of that union was largely due. As 



16 

chairman of the finance committee or of the committee on 
by-laws, and as a member of other important committees, 
his labors were constant and of great value. The statutes of 
the State relating to the Board, and the by-laws of the Board, 
were constantly under amendment by him, until finally nearly 
the whole of both bore the impress of his revision. One 
signal triumph may be here specified which marked his 
service in the Board. Some of the schools, in wards with 
population almost entirely Roman Catholic, were not opened 
with the reading of the Bible. When the bitterly anti-Irish 
and anti-Catholic party, which strangely gloried in the name 
of " the Know-Nothings," obtained for one year control of 
the Board, a majority of the committee on by-laws reported 
a by-law to compel such reading of the Bible ; under such 
penalties that, if the local ofificers failed to obey, the schools 
should be closed. The proposed by-law had not been con- 
sidered at any meeting of the committee, so that no remon- 
strating minority report could be heard against it, but was 
embodied in a report signed by a majority of its members. 
Judge Waterbury, in the Board, asked that its consideration 
should be postponed to enable him to submit the views of 
the minority. This fair and rightful request was refused, and 
the by-law was passed by simple force of numbers. At the 
next meeting (July, 1859), ^^ submitted a minority report, 
which also bore the signature of the Hon. William E. Curtis, 
now chief judge of the Superior Court of the city of New 
York, but the Board refused to receive or print it. Judge 
Waterbury had it printed at his own expense as a pamphlet, 
and distributed to the members, the newspapers, and the 
public, and the result was that the by-law at once became as 
dead as though a blank paper. It was utterly disregarded, 
and no attempt was ever made to enforce it. Indeed, the 
subject was so completely disposed of that in the twenty 
years whicli have elapsed, although the agitation of the same 
question has disturbed other communities, the city of New 
York has remained entirely free from it. Some years after- 
ward, at the last meeting of the Board attended by Judge 
Waterbury, and on his proposition, a motion repealing the 
dead by-law was unanimously adopted. Space permits me 
to quote only the following, which was the conclusion of the 
report referred to : ' 



17 

" The undersigned, while they are thus decided in their oppo- 
sition to the policy of compulsion, are also earnestly in favor of 
the daily reading of the Bible in our schools. They realize fully 
the inestimable value of that sacred book, in its influence upon 
the formation of character, in its guidance of our daily life and 
conduct, and in the preparation which it affords to all who accept 
it for the eternity beyond the grave. In their own Wards, where 
their advocacy of the policy of the daily reading of the Bible is 
proper and available, they have uniformly expressed these senti- 
ments, and it is gratifying to them that the Bible is, and has been, 
read daily in every school in their respective Wards, from the or- 
ganization of each school to the present time. Yet they do not 
deem it necessary or proper to seek occasion for the reiteration of 
these sentiments, much less do they believe that that sacred book 
should be used as a shibboleth by a political or any other secular 
interest. When religious matters are degraded from their high 
and holy sphere to the uses of partisanship of any kind, it is too 
often found that those who are loudest in their professed advocacy 
are not always, either in their language or conduct, the most con- 
sistent with religious purity or principle. Without imputing any 
such deficiency to their colleagues in the Board who have sup- 
ported these by-laws, the undersigned have failed to observe any- 
thing in the present agitation denoting a higher purpose than they 
have above indicated ; on the contrary, it seems to them to be 
clearly imbued with the unworthy spirit of personal and political 
ends, rather than with the peaceful and benevolent spirit of the 
Gospel of Christ. 

" While the undersigned have argued that the Board possesses 
no power to adopt the compulsory By-Laws, it is due to them- 
selves to declare that they would be adverse to the policy of com- 
pulsion, even if the power to adopt it were undoubted. They are 
entirely convinced of the wisdom and expediency of the rule 
which leaves this matter to the action of each locality. There is 
no subject whatever, notwithstanding the gentleness and modera- 
tion of its own precepts, and the brotherly love and charity 
which it inculcates, upon which mankind feel so keenly, or often 
manifest so much asperity, as upon that of religion. It works its 
way onward, not by reason of the occasional intolerance and 
violence of its advocates, but by its inherent beauty, wisdom, and 
power. They do not believe that a sincere convert has ever been 
made to any religious doctrine by outward compulsion, whether 
ecclesiastical, military, or political. It is not probable that any 
greater success will attend an attempt to force the daily reading 
of the Bible upon the people of any locality, whatever may be the 
motives that prompt their opposition to its use ; but, on the con- 
trary, the attempt is likely to arouse a more determined resistance. 

" In conclusion, because the Board has no authority whatever 
to pass these By-Laws ; because they uproot the wise and benefi- 
cent policy consistently pursued during the whole continuance of 
the existing school system ; because there is no necessity for their 
-adoption ; because they are harsh, unjust, and oppressive in their 
provisions ; because they proceed upon a basis of violence ^and 



18 

force, hostile to the very spirit of the Bible itself; and because 
there is imminent danger that they will substitute for a state of 
prosperity and peace, the issues of strife and destruction, the un- 
dersigned were and are opposed to their adoption, and they be- 
lieve that such opposition will commend itself, not only to every 
friend of the principles upon which our civil institutions are based, 
but also to all who prize and venerate the precious and immutable 
principles of the Christian faith." 

In the summer of 1853, the newly-appointed postmaster of 
New York earnestly solicited Judge Waterbury to accept the 
position of assistant postmaster, for the special purpose of 
securing his recognized ability as an organizer, for the es- 
tablishment of an improved system for the delivery of letters 
throughout the city ; offering to make to the salary such 
addition, out of his own, as would make it properly remuner- 
ative. With great reluctance Judge Waterbury finally con- 
sented. Such diversion of his attention and time from his 
profession was necessarily damaging to his practice of the 
latter; for the law is a jealous and exacting mistress. Prob- 
ably the laborious work to be done, for a good public ser- 
vice, and in the element in which he took a certain intellec- 
tual delight, exerted a fascination upon Judge Waterbury, 
which tempted him into an unwise deviation from his proper 
line of professional life. 

At that time the delivery was made by carriers who col- 
lected a fee of two cents on each letter for their compensation. 
Some routes were worth over $2,000 a year, others under $500. 
Every carrier had to attend at the general post-ofifice to receive 
his letters, though some routes were nearly five miles distant- 
from it. Some made three or four deliveries a day, to others- 
only one was possible. And there were a number of private 
establishments scattered throughout the city, styling them- 
selves " post-ofifices," and making rival deliveries. Instead of 
such system as ought to work the postal service of a great 
metropolis, there was chaos, and a chaos equally absurd and 
injurious to the public accommodation. He first broke up the 
undue advantages of carriers on the dense business routes by 
requiring half of the carriers' fees to be paid into a common 
fund, and distributed on a plan by which the carriers on 
routes covering large areas received a larger sum per letter 
than those on routes embraced within a circuit of a few 
hundred feet. Having thus secured the means of equalizing^ 



19 

the delivery over the whole city, he also established hundreds 
of locked boxes at suitable places throughout the city, from 
M^hich letters were taken at stated hours each day, by regu- 
lar collectors. He next assailed the private post-offices, as 
they were called, and at last, after a desperate resistance, 
compelled them to discontinue their illegitimate business. 
Thus, step by step, he gradually, and with great difficulty — 
because every movement, strenuously resisted by those 
whose interests were necessarily damaged by reform, had to 
receive the approval of the department at Washington — pre- 
pared the way for an entirely new system. At the end of 
about two years he had the satisfaction of being able to make 
his reform comprehensive and complete. The city was di- 
vided into seven districts, in each of which (other than the 
one containing the general post-office) a station was estab- 
lished, designated as stations A, B, etc., each one of which 
was practically a post-office for the district ; so that, while 
letters continued to be directed to the New York post-office, 
they were there distributed and sent in bulk to the proper 
districts, from which they received their local delivery with 
the utmost possible promptitude and regularity. Conversely 
the collectors from the boxes delivered at the stations of 
their respective districts, from which transmission was made 
to the general office. The constant and rapid communica- 
tions between the central office and the stations, to and fro, 
was effected by circulating wagons, making the circuit of the 
city at stated intervals each day. Not merely the general 
system, but every detail, including the mapping out of the 
districts, the hiring and fitting up the stations, the selecting 
and drilling of the men, etc., was personally attended to by 
Judge Waterbury ; and so thoroughly, that the new system 
was a complete success from the very day of its opening; 
working like clock-work, in the whole and in all of its parts. 
With the growth of the city, the districts have been increased 
to nearly twenty, but the system remains unchanged, except 
only that the delivery of letters is now free from any carrier's 
charge. Once or twice minor changes have been made, but 
they did not work well, and Judge Waterbury's system, pure 
and simple, was soon restored. Thus a very model for city 
delivery of mailable matter was established in New York, 
which has led to an improvement of the carriers* delivery 



20 

everywhere, and to a very large yearly increase in the reve- 
nues of the Post-Office Department. Yet few reflect or re- 
member to whose organizing and creative genius all this is due. 

The reaction from his excessive labor brought upon Judge 
Waterbury a severe sickness, a condition of fevered nervous 
exhaustion. He had all along felt an undue confidence that 
his elastic, while delicate, constitution could endure the strain 
of any amount of work that should not exceed twenty-four 
hours in the day. With a pulse at 120, and unable to leave 
the house, he had a clerk from the post-office to attend him 
every day with the papers requiring his action. The grate- 
ful postmaster, learning from his physician that his recovery 
was hopeless unless he should abstain from work, directed 
that no more papers should be taken to his house. Without 
the employment which had sustained while it was killing 
him, he broke down, as the thorough-bred which can, or at 
least will, go while between the shafts, sinks to the ground 
the moment they are withdrawn. Judge Waterbury was 
then prostrated in bed with a fever which continued un- 
broken for two months. As he began to rally a little in the 
spring of 1856, he proceeded to Cuba, and thence traveled 
home though the southern states, reaching New York at the 
end of May, with health completely reestablished. Such is 
the history, not before written, of the establishment of the 
present postal system of the City of New York. 

While yet in the post-office, it became necessary in No- 
vember, 1858, to elect a new District Attorney for the city. 
That functionary is the public prosecutor, and occupies a 
relation so close to the administration of the general police 
system, that, while the two branches are officially distinct, 
he is in some sense its intellectual head. The leading men 
in the Democratic party appeared to turn, with almost one 
mind, to Judge Waterbury. He suggested that as he had 
been out of the practice of the law for over five years, it was 
a dangerous experiment to put him in that position ; but 
they had full confidence in his ability to fill any office with 
credit to himself and those who had selected him for it, and 
he was nominated with great unanimity, and triumphantly 
elected. Their sagacity was soon vindicated from all doubts 
whether of himself or others. He had not been four months 
in the office before he had won the entire confidence of the 



St 

public. The wife of a man named Stephens had died one 
year previously, and there were such strong grounds of sus- 
picion that she had been poisoned, that Judge Waterbury 
directed the disinterment of the body, and an examination 
to be made by Prof. R. Ogden Doremus, the eminent chem- 
ist. It was found to be permeated in every part with 
arsenic, which had preserved it from decay, and Stephens 
was indicted for murder. He was one of the false professors 
of an ostentatious piety, and his fellow-worshippers in his 
church rallied indignantly to his defense, and supplied the 
means for it to be made with ability and vigor. The trial 
lasted three weeks, and ended in the conviction of the mur- 
derer, who, after the case had been taken to the Court of 
Appeals, and the conviction affirmed, suffered the penalty 
of the law. The work so efficiently begun was vigorously 
followed up. Every case of the willful use of'deadly weapons, 
whether fatal or not in the result, was prosecuted, and the 
guilty were punished. There was a large, powerful, and 
dangerous class in New York, against whom this bold and 
firm course-was a personally hazardous, and very hazardous, 
declaration of war. William Mulligan, a gambler, one of its 
most noted members (who, when excited with drink, was a 
reckless ruffian, and who was afterward shot to death by 
the police of San Francisco), found himself compelled to 
exchange the fashionable broadcloth and diamond studs 
with which he promenaded Broadway for the simpler uniform 
of Sing Sing, for the crime of aiming a loaded pistol at a 
police officer. And while the assaults endangering the lives 
of public officers were inflexibly and severely punished, these 
latter were made to know that they too would be held to 
strict accountability for any unnecessary degree of severity 
toward even the criminal class. Judge Waterbury held 
that there should not be any outcast class in a Christian 
or civilized community, and that care should be taken to 
show the offenders that while the law exacted obedience it 
did not withhold just protection. The result was not long 
in manifesting itself. Even the more depraved, when they 
found that justice was not a one-sided word, and that, while 
one hand held the sword of public duty, the other held the 
shield for the defence of all entitled to it, felt the good and 
wise mollifying influence ; and New York, reversing its bad 



fepute, became known for a time as unsurpassed for order 
and quiet by any city of its size in the world. So in regard 
to the frauds known as ticket-swindhng, which made New 
York a place of terror to the multitudes attracted by 
its business facilities, who daily embarked at its wharves. 
Judge Waterbury took up the task of correction in his 
characteristic thorough-going way, and made short and sharp 
work of the principal offenders, and so paralyzed and deter- 
red the rest that the system became, and has remained, a 
thing of the past. 

The great case of Charles Jefferds for the murder of John 
Walton and John W. Mathews, was the most important one 
of Mr. Waterbury's term of the District Attorneyship. The 
prisoner had the powerful aid of James T. Brady as his 
leading counsel. It was a horrid case ; an intricately tangled, 
and every way a most extraordinary one. Jefferds was a 
step-son of Mr. Walton, being son of Mrs. Walton, by the 
first of the several marriages of which that with Mr. Walton 
had been the last. Walton was shot down at the corner of 
Third Avenue and i8th Street, at 20 minutes past 11, of a 
bright moonshiny night, when there was no lack of people 
in the streets. The assassin, who had been lying in wait for 
him behind a tree, stepped up close to him, after he had 
passed, killed him on the spot by a large bullet through his 
brain ; fled, was pursued, turned upon his foremost pursuer, 
Mathews, and by a shot in the breast, laid him also dead on 
the spot, himself escaping. The pistol was found the next 
morning in a neighboring yard, where it had been flung, with 
two barrels out of the five discharged in their work of two- 
fold murder. As there were two distinct crimes, separated 
by an interval of time, and prompted by different motives, 
though the one grew out of the other, there were two indict- 
ments. On the first, that for the deliberate lying-in-wait 
assassination of his step-father, Walton, the evidence was 
insufficient for a conviction. His face had been seen too 
rapidly by moonlight, and at too great a distance, for con- 
clusive identification. After a few minutes of hiding under 
a stoop, he had got off on a street car, and had crossed the 
ferry to South Brooklyn, where he reached his lodgings so 
promptly that, in view of some differences of time, as esti- 
mated by the various witnesses who heard the shots, it was 



a point strenuously disputed for the defense whether li6 
could have accomplished the distance in his flight. And 
that which was the real motive to the crime, was at once as 
difificult to prove as it was horrid and revolting, namely, a 
prompting by his mother to rid her of her husband , prompt- 
ing in which hire was combined with hate. She had a strong 
interest in Mr. Walton's death at that time, so that she 
could receive her widow's dower in his considerable estate; 
for he had recently put her away for just cause, and she 
knew him to be on the track of the evidence which would 
show her either to be the undivorced wife of a husband still 
living, or to have at least passed for the wife of that other 
man without the sanction of marriage. On the indictment 
for the murder of Mr. Walton, Jefferds had escaped convic- 
tion, but the District Attorney remained thoroughly con- 
vinced of his guilt, and held the other indictment still over 
him, for the murder of Mathews, his pursuer in his flight ; a 
conviction held also by the brother of the murdered Walton, 
now guardian of his orphaned children, and as such resisting 
the suit of Jefferds' mother for her dower. Judge Water- 
bury did not, however, choose to proceed at once to the 
trial of the second indictment, but, on the contrary, sur 
prised the public by releasing Jefferds from prison on his 
own recognizance. More evidence to bring the crime home 
was necessary, and he trusted to that providential law which 
always tends to make the murderer himself betray his ever- 
torturing secret, and was not unwilling that his apparent 
triumph over public justice, and consequent sense of security, 
should, together with his habits of dissipation and intem- 
perance, favor the operation of that law. The able Chief of 
Police, Mr. John A. Kennedy, who had been surprised to 
see Jefferds thus released from custody without a second 
trial for the second crime, proposed to the District Attorney 
to have him '• shadowed " by a skillful detective, who should 
fall into acquaintance and intimacy with him, and so obtain 
the needed clues to other circumstances of a character to 
complete the evidence. 

Mr. Waterbury felt the strongest obligations of a civic as 
well as of official duty which called for a conviction in such a 
case. If such a crime, perpetrated with an audacity so de- 
fiant of the pubhc justice, should be crowned with impunity 



u 

and triumph, no peaceful citizen's life would be safe on the 
best streets of New York against the hand of murder, whether 
prompted by greed or by revenge. The profligate habits of 
the criminal thus allowed to go at large rendered the task of 
the detective no very difficult one, notwithstanding that 
Jefferds was informed by his mother that she was told that 
his new associate was a policeman. He let out where he 
had bought the pistol, and even confessed the first murder, 
for which he knew that he could not now be tried again ; 
indeed, in his cups, he had rather a tendency to boast of it. 
He was arrested and tried for the second murder, that of 
Mathews. The case was still a difficult one, being almost 
wholly one of circumstantial evidence, since a detective's 
testimony to confessions was very questionable. It also 
involved the curious point that the Walton murder, for 
which the criminal was now safe, had virtually to be tried 
over again ; not to convict him for it but to fasten it upon 
him as a vital element in* the proof of the other murder 
which had grown out of it ; the two being inseparable, and 
it being conceded that he could not be convicted of the 
second murder unless he had committed the first, there being 
otherwise no proof of motive. 

The trial lasted a week. Judge Waterbury's management 
of the witnesses was very masterly, and his address to the jury 
was a model of clear exposition, lucid analysis, effective 
gi^ouping of a large variety of details, all converging to the 
focal point of demonstration and conviction, and of that calm 
and dignified strength, conscientiously directed to a righteous 
object, which became a public prosecutor who felt his high 
but painful function to be that of a priesthood in the temple 
of justice. It was in the course of this address that he re- 
pelled in the language above quoted an attempt that was 
made by the defense to prejudice the jury by the imputation 
of a vindictive excess of zeal in the prosecution, giving it a 
character of persecution. When he sat down all felt the 
doom of the criminal to be sealed, and the jury were so 
completely satisfied that upon retiring they immediately 
voted by ballot, without discussion, that he was guilty. 

This trial won high praise for Judge Waterbury for the 
forensic power displayed by the District Attorney, and 
better stilly the respect of all who had followed it, for the 



25 

man. The wretched murderer eventually, however, escaped 
the doom of the scaffold. He was killed in prison by a 
fellow-convict, in an affray provoked by the reckless violence 
of character which had thus conducted him to its foot. A 
lawyer present at this trial (since a distinguished judge), re- 
ferring to Waterbury's success as public prosecutor, said 
that, " Speaking without notes, he had a habit, when he 
had finished a point, of letting his eyelids close for a few 
seconds, while he selected the next that he would present. 
It thus became an axiom among the frequenters of the 
court, that when the District Attorney shut his eyes the 
prisoner's last chance was gone." 

The signal success of Judge Waterbury as a prosecuting 
officer was due to an unusual combination of qualities — those 
qualities, mental and moral, which have been above indicated. 
His quickness of perception, remarkable memory of facts 
and faculty of coordinating them, firmness of purpose, con- 
scientiousness, and intense earnestness, would carry his 
juries along with him almost unconsciously. His fairness 
was as manifest as was his fearlessness. If he felt any doubt 
of a person's guilt, he would frankly say so. He would 
never press a juror into the box to whom an objection could 
be made with the smallest show of reason. No testimony 
offered by a prisoner was excluded unless it was so clearly 
incompetent as to be a mere waste of time ; and no prisoner 
failed to have a material witness because he could not hirp- 
self procure him, if the public money could bring him. But 
while he thus gave every fair and proper chance, even to the 
most guilty, and no word nor act ever manifested the least 
spirit of injustice to the prisoner, even in the mind of the 
District Attorney, this vciy conduct of the prosecution gave 
additional force to the case established against him, so that 
it became almost a settled axiom, that for Waterbury to try 
was to convict, unless he himself declared to the jury that 
the case involved some reasonable doubt. 

If I have dwelt a little on this feature of Judge Water- 
bury's professional life, it is not alone because I regard it as 
signally honorable to him, but with a view to present it as a 
model, alike in its nobleness of method and in its practical 
success, to all to whom is assigned the delicate function of 
the public prosecutor — a function which in France is called 



26 

and theoretically regarded as a magistracy, though we so 
rarely see it exercised in the semi-judicial spirit befitting 
that title. In the present instance, I really think it was 
performed in a spirit not less sincerely judicial than if the 
District Attorney had been sitting on the bench instead of 
pleading before it. 

It may seem strange that such a model District Attorney 
was not re-elected on the expiration of his term in i86i, but 
the reason for that was an additional honor to Judge Water- 
bury's name. Before the close of his term he had felt it his 
duty to bring before the Grand Jury and investigate certain 
acts of the Common Council, for which it was reported that 
large sums of money had been paid. The members of that 
body, the influential local politicians of the wards, to whom 
such a prosecution by such a prosecutor opened up a vista in 
which, through the stages of exposure and disgorgement, the 
cells of Sing Sing closed the perspective before them, saw 
in Judge Waterbury (though himself a zealous and active 
Democratic politician) at once their foe and their fate. The 
candidate of the Republicans was endorsed by the Mozart 
branch of the Democratic party controlled by the then 
Mayor of the city, and though Judge Waterbury ran 7,000 
ahead of his ticket (a signal personal tribute), he was defeated 
by only about 900, Had he been re elected to continue the 
campaign of investigation and prosecution then opened by 
him, it seems probable that the noxious plant of municipal 
corruption, already vigorously started in a rank soil, could 
never have flowered out into the splendid and gorgeous pro- 
portions it attained just ten years afterward, when the ex- 
posure of its enormous growth alarmed the whole country, 
and added to the American language a word which, as the 
name of a man now gone to his last account, has become the 
name of a thing which unhappily is not yet equally defunct. 

The extraordinary vigilance and efficiency of Judge Water- 
bury's discharge of the duties of this office were curiously 
brought out to public light soon afterward. The Board of 
Supervisors had voted to raise the salary of his successor 
from $5,000 to $7,000. The Mayor, Mr. Opdyke, a Repub- 
lican, vetoed the measure, in a message in which he con- 
trasted the work of Judge Waterbury in the last year of his 
term (1861), with those of the proposed beneficiaiy of the 



1861. 


1862. 


Decrease. 


Percentnge of 

Decreasfe 

from 1861. 


1,239 


949 


290 


•23 


690 


399 


2gi 


.42 


154 


97 


57 


•37 


79 


59 


20 


.25 


245 


137 


108 


■44 


379 


214 


165 


•59 



27 

increase of the salary in the only year of his term (1862) 
which had elapsed. The Mayor's figures were as follows, to 
which are appended the results of the contrast. Dealing 
with a question referring to Judge Waterbury, he seemed to 
have caught a little of his genius for figures tabulated in sta- 
tistical form to prove important facts. 



No. of indictments found by the 
Grand Jury, . . , 

" of convictions, 
" " acquittals, 
" sent to City Prison, 
" " " Penitentiary, 
" " " State Prison, 
Aggregate of sentences to State Prison 

other than for life, . . . 977^y. 33S|y. 638! years. 65 

The smallest decrease was in the number of indictments 
found by the Grand Jury. In the prosecution of the in- 
dictments, the decrease was not as great in the acquittals as 
in the convictions. In the punishments, the decrease was 
larger, as they increased in severity, until in the aggregate of 
sentences to the State Prison, which includes both the num- 
ber sent and the length of their terms, the decrease was 
nearly two-thirds of the total for 1861. As the same judges 
presided each year, the comparison illustrates the influence 
exerted by an efficient prosecutor over the entire admin- 
istration of the criminal law. It is no wonder that the 
Mayor could see no good reason for an increase of pay to 
remunerate so great a falling off in performance. It would 
be still higher credit to Judge Waterbury, and praise to his 
administration, if we should, without any comparative dis- 
paragement to that of his successor, accept the supposition 
that the deterrent influence of the certainty of punishment, 
which had grown up under the former, combined with those 
wholesome moral influences of a different character of which 
mention has been made above, had so acted on the vicious 
habits of the criminal classes of the city as really to have 
wrought the effect of producing so great a reduction in the 
frequency and gravity of their offenses against the law and 
the public justice. 

When the news reached New York of the fire opened on 
Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, in April, i86i. 



28 

Judge Waterbury was selected by the Democratic General 
Committee of the City of New York to draft an expression 
of its sentiments (the duty of drafting important resolutions 
was one frequently deferred to him), and his clear, strong,- 
and patriotic resolutions were adopted with enthusiasm, and 
were greatly effective in giving hope and courage to the up- 
holders of the Union everywhere, as an authentic declaration 
of the opinion of the mass of the Democratic party in their 
great stronghold. They are appended in a note,* as the 



* IVhereas, This General Committee, and those they represent, have, to the 
present time, been the consistent advocates of the rights of every section of our 
country, and the firm defenders of the Constitutional rights of the Southern 
people, to protection from every species of assault upon their peculiar domestic 
institutions, and have always maintained their right to share, upon equitable 
terms, in the settlement of the National domain, and have made resolute and 
strenuous efforts to secure an adjustment of the whole matter in controversy, 
upon a basis at once just and liberal toward the South, and honorable to our 
whole country ; and 

Whereas, Several of the Southern States have assumed the position of vio- 
lent resistance to National authority, which resistance has been carried to the 
extent of actual war, manifested by outrages on the flag of the United States; 
the forcible seizure of their fortifications and property ; the preparation of ex- 
tensive armaments and batteries for assault upon the forces of the nation ; the 
bonibardment of Fort Sumter ; and, finally, by an invitation to the freebooters 
of the world to prey upon the commerce of our people ; and 

Whereas, The rulers of the Seceded States, by the measures aforesaid, have 
commenced a civil war upon the United States, threatening their existence as 
a National power ; and 

Whereas, The members of the Democratic party — a party whose history is 
the record of an eminent and successful part in the formation of our institutions, 
the administration of our Government, and the prosperity of our country, are 
especially called upon by all the memories of the past, and all the hopes of the 
future, to rally with promptness and vigor to the defense of their country 
against all foes, whether at home or abroad ; therefore. 

Resolved, That the Democracy of this city are heartily united, with all of its 
citizens, as one man, to uphold the Constitution, enforce the laws, maintain the 
Union, defend the Flag, and protect the Capital of these United States, in the 
full and firm belief that this preservation of our national unity is the only security 
for the rights, liberties, and power of our own people, and the greatest hope of 
oppressed humanity throughout the world. 

Resolved, That this rally for the country is nobly and wisely made by our 
whole people, irrespective of party organizations, and without regard to past 
differences of opinion or action, for the purpose of sustaining the Government 
in the exercise of its powers and duties as the constitued authority of the nation ; 
and that in the same spirit, and for the same pur-pose, all questions as to what 
has been done or omitted in the way of concession and conciliation, and all 
questions respecting the course and policy of the Administration, should be 



best possible presentation of the ideas of a " War Demo- 
crat," even while the writer of these pages feels bound to 
avow that, not less conscientiously, nor less patriotically, 
than Judge Waterbury framed them, he would have been 
compelled to oppose them, and to support rather the policy 
expressed by General Scott and Mr. Greeley, in the expres- 
sion, "Erring Sisters, go in peace," in the firm conviction 
that less than five years would have witnessed a sure return, 
and a better Reunion. But victory crowned the policy of 
the war, which was not less a conflict of ideas, and principles, 
and consciences, than of arms. Every man's duty in such 
times and events, was what was dictated to him by his own 
soul. If mingled good and evil have been its results, so 
would they have been of a different issue. Happily, all can 
now meet fraternally on the ground of mutual respect and 

forgotten until the national honor has been vindicated, and the national power 
firmly established. 

Resolved, That the unanimity and spirit with which the people of the North 
have responded to the call of the President for material aid in the present crisis, 
should not be taken as an indication of the least desire, or even Millingness on 
their part, to war upon the people of the South ; but only as an evidence of 
their determination to preserve the Union, as a blessing of inestimable value, 
and to defend the sacred Flag of our country, which commands the homage of 
all our hearts ; and of their inflexible resolve that Bunker Hill and Mount 
Vernon, New York and New Orleans shall never be dissevered. 

Resolved, That we cannot disregard the evidences M'hich have been presented, 
that in many parts of the South, the resistance to the National power has been 
accomplished by the terrorism of mob rule, and against the interests and wishes 
of the conservative classes, embracing a large portion of the extensive owners 
of slaves ; and we yet look to Tennessee and Kentucky, containing the tombs 
of Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, and the homes of James Guthrie, John J. 
Crittenden, and Andrew Johnson, in the hope that their fidelity to the Union 
and the National Flag will be maintained amid all the difficulties of their po- 
sition ; and we pledge ourselves to those States, and to all the loyal men of the 
South, to defend the Constitutional rights and interests of every section of the 
Union, at all times and under all circumstances, with the same zeal and fidelity 
with which we will uphold the National power, and aid in the prompt and 
proper punishment of all traitors. 

Resolved, That we have witnessed with pride and admiration the calm and 
forbearing possession and heroic defense of Fort Sumter, by Major Robert An- 
derson, a gallant and noble son of Kentucky, and for his patriotic efforts for 
peace, his brilliant defense of his Flag, and his manly refusal to surrender to 
the enemy, we render to him our heartfelt thanks ; and that all who may dis- 
tinguish themselves in the service of this glorious Union in its present peril, 
will be honored throughout the country, and enshrined in every patriotic heart 
throughout all time. 



30 

self-respect, oblivion of the old animosities, and all be as one 
in recognizing that 

" There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will." 

The truth is, that the " Barnburners " of 1848, the friends 
of Van Buren, and the " avengers of Silas Wright," did not 
believe in the reality of the long threatened " danger to the 
Union " from the anti-slavery agitation. History soon 
taught them better, when the Whig party, after 1852, as- 
suming the new name of the " Republican " party, made 
with the Abolitionists, on the large national scale, that same 
alliance which the " Barnburners" in New York had virtually 
entered into for a momentary occasion, as they deemed, on 
the " Buffalo platform." The result was, that Fremont was 
all but elected in 1856, and Lincoln elected in i860; and the 
dread history of the four years that succeeded we all know ; 
as also the secondary consequences to the whole country, 
moral, political, and industrial, which have trailed through 
our sky, like the tail of some baleful comet, from then even 
till now. Like Seymour and Tilden, Mr.Waterbury and the 
bulk of the party known as " War Democrats " supported 
the government with steady firmness and zeal in the sustain- 
ment and enforcement of the Union, though neither he nor 
they ever gave any approval to many arbitrary acts of the 
party in power, incidental to the prosecution of the war, which 
were deemed to be not less unnecessary than they were in 
violation of established principles of law and the constitution. 

In the fall of 1862, Judge Waterbury was nominated for 
Member of Congress by all of the three organizations into 
which his party was at that time divided. His election was 
certain, the Democratic majority in the city and in his dis- 
trict being overwhelming. But there was a close contest for 
the governorship between Horatio Seymour and General 
Wadsworth, in which the former had to a considerable extent 
the support of the " Old Line Whigs," an influential body 
of men in all the large counties of the State. One of their 
number, James Brooks, Editor of the Express, desired strongly 
to go to Congress from Judge Waterbury's district, which 
he had formerly represented as a Whig of the Clay and 
Webster times. It was a subject of complaint on the part 
of that interest throughout the State that, while they were 



31 

zealously supporting the Democratic party, they were not 
even allowed a single member of Congress. They pressed 
their claim for a seat from the city, and Mr. Brooks was their 
most -prominent representative. It was deemed important 
toward securing the election of Gov. Seymour that their 
new Democratic sympathies should not be chilled by refusing 
them this satisfaction. Judge Waterbury consented that 
the question of his withdrawal in favor of Mr. Brooks should 
be referred to Charles O'Conor, John Kelly, and a third per- 
son whom Mr. Brooks should select. The result was that it 
was deemed judicious that Mr. Brooks and his party should 
be gratified, and Mr. Waterbury at once withdrew, unwilling 
that in the event of Governor Seymour's defeat he should 
appear to have contributed to that result by not having ap- 
peased that dissatisfaction on the part of the " Old Line 
Whigs." The local disappointment was very great. Indeed, 
the Hon. Elliott C. Cowdin, who was the Republican candi- 
date, stated that he would have withdrawn in Judge Water- 
bury's favor rather than that the latter should retire. 
Though Judge Waterbury did not believe that the result in 
the State would be controlled by his action, he preferred, if 
the representative men of his party would take the respons- 
ibility, to avoid any possibility of the imputations which 
might attend an adverse result. He has several times since 
been urged to be a candidate for Congress, with the certainty 
of election, but he felt constrained to adhere to the practice of 
his profession. This is to be regretted, for it is certain he would 
have made one of the most useful and influential members 
of that body, and have done good service to our country. 

Gov. Seymour tendered to Judge Waterbury the position 
of Judge-Advocate-General of the State, and, fearing that he 
would not accept it, requested the late William Cassidy, then 
the Editor of the Albany Argtcs, to visit New York and 
urge Mr. Waterbury to take the ofifice as a matter both of 
personal friendship and of public duty. He finally consented, 
because, though nominally a military position, it was really 
a law of^ce, and the dark days were come which gave it an 
importance not attaching to it in the ordinary " piping 
times of peace." It carried the lawful rank and title of 
Brigadier-General, but Judge Waterbury had so^little taste 
for military display by mere civilians, that he never wore his 



uniform in public but on a single occasion, and habitually 
refused to answer to the saluation of " General." Indeed, 
the uniform was not ordered by him, but was sent to him as 
a congratulation upon his appointment, by the late Daniel 
Devlin, Chamberlain of the city, a leading man in the cloth- 
ing trade, as also a prominent citizen. Among the great 
number of our " Generals," he therefore enjoys the distinction 
of being perhaps the only man who refused to be styled by 
that title, so that we have to adhere to the old customary 
civilian designation of "Judge." 

In the first year of his service occurred the terrible New 
York riots of July, 1863. They began on a Sunday, and 
Judge Waterbury reached the city on the evening of Mon- 
day, and after that was constantly on duty. Gov. Seymour, 
who arrived in the city on Tuesday morning, had great con- 
fidence in his ability and tact, and found in him a most 
efificient aid. On Wednesday noon he suggested to the 
Governor that the chief cause of trouble was less a riotous 
disposition on the part of the people, than their enforced 
idleness, business having been effectually stopped by the 
fact that neither omnibuses nor railroad cars were running. 
The Governor authorized him in his name to take measures 
to remedy this state of things. Proceeding alone in a car- 
riage to the various depots and stables, he saw before mid- 
night the represensatives of over twenty of some twenty-six 
railroad and stage lines, generally situated in the midst of 
the riotous district (a service of no small danger and daring); 
and using words of mingled entreaty and authority according 
to circumstances, and working with his characteristic earnest- 
ness and tact, he induced them all to listen to his proposals 
and enter into his views. They were very apprehensive of 
the consequences by reason of the threats which had been 
made by the leaders of the rioters that their buildings should 
be burned if they should recommence business, but Judge 
Waterbury arranged with them that military forces should 
be stationed at various convenient points for the protection 
of their property. Reaching the police headquarters at one 
o'clock in the morning, he wrote an order by the Governor to 
Major-General Sandford to detail a military force to each 
of the several places designated, and to have them at their 
posts by five A. M., and handed it to the clerk of the com- 



33 

missioners to be immediately delivered. All was thoroughly 
combined and executed, and worked like magic, and at an 
early hour the people were delighted by the customary sight 
and sound of the public vehicles, not less cheering to them 
than was the simultaneous sunlight, for it was the best assur- 
ance that order was restored. If Judge Waterbury had 
chosen to accept his lawful title of " General " (by which 
Gov. Seymour always persists in addressing him), he certainly 
had on this critical occasion fairly earned it ; and by better 
means, and the display of better qualities of good sense and 
good feeUng, combined with courage, than those required for 
the winning of the crimsoned honors of the battle-field. 

The provoking cause of these riots had been the dispro- 
portionate and unfair allotment for the draft made against 
the city ; an injustice the more irritating because, in its exe- 
cution, it was made to bear with, a peculiar degree. of op- 
pression upon a particular nationality. It looked very much 
like a political discrimination against a Democratic popula- 
tion ; at the same time it admitted perhaps the palliation 
that those who arranged the allotments may have supposed 
that our Irish fellow-citizens have such a natural love and 
genius for fighting that they might rather like than other- 
wise the being conscripted for the war, in however excessive a 
disproportion. Governor Seymour directed the Judge- 
Advocate-General to investigate the facts in relation to the 
enrollment in the metropolitan cities of New York and Brook- 
lyn, as a basis for the draft of soldiers. After an examina- 
tion made with his usual thoroughness, accuracy, and ex- 
haustiveness. Judge Waterbury made a report which proved 
to demonstration that the enrollment in the metropolitan 
districts was twice as large in proportion to population as in 
the interior counties of the State. He proved the political 
character of the enrollment by showing that while the total 
votes in i860 had been, for the Lincoln and Anti-Lincoln 
Congressional districts, respectively, 457,257 and 151,253, 
the conscripts from them were, respectively, 39,626 and 
33,729; and that while in 1862 the total votes in the Wads- 
worth and Seymour Congressional districts had been, re- 
spectively, 353,621 and 186,255, the conscripts required from 
them were, respectively, 33,068 and 40,287. Such figures, 
viz., 40,000 conscripts required in the Seymour districts 



34 

(chiefly New York and Brooklyn) from 186,000 voters, against 
only 33,000 required from 353,000 voters! The calm and 
persuasive demonstration of Judge Waterbury's report was 
irresistible. Nor in the President (Lincoln) did he encoun- 
ter any other than a fair and honest spirit. There had also 
been great unfairness in the drawing. " In the drawing in 
the 9th district, which is in the City of New York," says 
Judge Waterbury in his masterly report, " so far as the list 
was published, there was a great disproportion in the names 
of people of a particular lineage, although only one-fourth 
of the inhabitants of the district were born in Ireland. I 
called the attention of the President to this fact, and sug- 
gested to him that such a result could not be continued 
throughout the city without being followed by a belief in the 
public mind that the draft had been unjustly made. He 
answered, ' Of course not ;' and added with an earnestness I 
was glad to observe, ' I will not permit either a real or an 
apparent fraud.' " The effect of Judge Waterbury's report 
was that a commission was appointed by the Secretary of 
War to examine the matter, and upon its report the quota 
required from the city was reduced by 20,000 men. 

In May, 1862, Judge Waterbury was elected Grand Sa- 
chem (or presiding officer) of the Tammany Society, and 
served one year. At the close of 1863, he retired from the 
Tammany General Committee, and has ever since been an 
unyielding adversary of the virtual domination of " Tammany 
Hall " over the Democracy of New York. A time-serving 
politician, one less disinterested in patriotism and democracy, 
less stern and uncompromising in his passion for political 
purity inseparable from public economy — in a word, one less 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the idol of his youth, 
and the exemplar of his manhood, Silas Wright — would 
rather have inclined to keep on good terms with thfe leaders 
controlling the majority of his party in the great city of his 
residence. But such is not, and never has been the temper 
of Judge Waterbury. Such a man must necessarily make 
many formidable political enemies, but they respect as well 
as dread him, even on the field of irreconcilable conflict be- 
tween them. Himself fears nothing and nobody, and rather 
exults in the " stern joy " of the fight, than shrinks from its 
blows, or takes account of his own interests or his own labors 



..«"*^ 



35 

.in its conduct. At the same time, while in local politics for 
municipal reform, and honestly economical good govern- 
ment, he is thus uncompromising, in national politics he is 
one of the most thorough, sound, and devoted members of 
the Democratic party of the Union, and as such is one of the 
most sagacious, prudent, and practical. He is a truly valu- 
able citizen of the Union, the State, and the City, to all of 
which he has rendered — and will to the end, continue to 
render — truly valuable patriotic service. O si sic oinncs ! 

Many passages in the life of Judge Waterbury have been 
necessarily omitted from this honest and sincere, while 
friendly sketch of him, which does not pretend to the char- 
acter of a biography. One other only will be mentioned. 
In 1 87 1, an Act was passed by the Legislature for the ap- 
pointment of three Commissioners to revise the Statutes of 
the State. Francis Kernan, the present eminent Senator in 
Congress, who was appointed as one of them, declined to 
serve, and Governor Hoffman appointed Judge Waterbury 
in his place ; one of the highest tributes of compliment that 
could be paid to a lawyer and public man. Gov. Hoffman 
made the spontaneous selection (as he has assured me) be- 
cause convinced that he could not find a better man at the 
Bar to do justice to the work involved. When the Commis- 
sioners proceeded to their work, a radical difference was 
found to exist in their views. The majority insisted on ex- 
tensive amendments of the statutes. Judge Waterbury, 
with his ever practical mind, urged that such a course would 
inevitably array, against whatever report the Commissioners 
should make, a combination of interests affected by, or 
differing in opinion from, the sweeping changes proposed, 
resulting in the probable eventful defeat of the work. He 
claimed that only such amendments should be made on the 
body of the statutes, already not very long before revised, as 
were clearly necessary, namely, such as were merely verbal. 
Each side presented a report to the Legislature, setting forth 
its views, but no action was taken by that body. With wide 
differences of opinion among the Commissioners, which con- 
tinued in 'spite of all attempts to harmonize them, the work 
proceeded but slowly. Both sides again submitted conflict- 
ing reports to the Legislature, and as that body, after the 
lapse of two months, still took no action. Judge Waterbury, 



S6 

unwilling to waste his time in what he considered viseless. 
work, resigned the office. Time has justified the wisdom of 
his views. After the lapse of nearly eight years from the 
creation of the commission, and the cost to the State of a 
quarter of a million of dollars, the commission has ceased to 
exist, having only partially accomplished its work, of which 
only a part has been enacted by the Legislature ; the pro- 
fession is profoundly divided over the subject, and the pres- 
ent question apppears to be, not whether any more shall be 
adopted, but whether what has been enacted shall be allowed 
to stand. 

Judge Waterbury is a son of Col. Jonathan Waterbury, a 
highly esteemed citizen of New York, who died in 1829, at 
the early age of thirty-one. His mother was Elizabeth Jar- 
vis, daughter of Elijah Jarvis (nephew of Bishop Jarvis), 
and of Betsey Chapman, daughter of Dr. Chapman, a dis- 
tinguished physician of that day, of Norwalk, Connecticut. 
Both of his mother's parents were carried off by yellow fever, 
in New York, in her infancy, in the year 1801. It was said, 
at the great ball given by the city to Lafayette, at Castle 
Garden, in 1824, that Colonel and Mrs. Waterbury were the 
handsomest couple in the room. Family tradition relates 
that on the occasion of that ball, the streets and approaches 
to Castle Garden were so blocked by the crowds of carriages, 
and people on foot, that Colonel and Mrs. Waterbury had 
to take a small boat at the foot of Courtlandt Street, to 
reach the scene of the festivity. 

Judge Waterbury married, early in life. Miss Gibson, a 
lady whose parents, resident in Boston, Mass., had died in 
her infancy ; her mother was of the Cooledge family. She 
has been ever the blessing and solace of her husband's life. 
They have three lovely daughters, and one son, now a stu- 
dent in Columbia College, destined, like his father, to the 
profession of the law. Judge Waterbury is one of the most 
amiable and unselfish of men, and a true and constant friend, 
too often, perhaps, too generous a one. Among the million 
of its population, New York contains no more affectionate 
and unostentatiously pious a home, one in which the parents 
are the friends and companions of the children ; nor has its 
portal ever yet been darkened by the shadow of death. 
Long may it continue to enjoy that favored exemption. 



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